Get the Podcast Playbook, to accompany the podcast here. Filled with devotionals, checklists, questionnaires and more:

In this episode you will learn:

What oil paints teach us about the will of God
How to get unstuck from a mentality that doesn’t serve you
Why your God-sized dream can be found in what you love

Episode length: 10:40

Transcript:

On today's podcast, we're gonna talk about art in a way that will reshape how you see the will of God for your life. These are tips You can start right now to move toward those God-sized dreams in bite sized chunks.

Hello and welcome to the podcast God size dreams and bite size chunks. I'm your host, Angela Meer. So let's get ready to be energized, inspired and activated in our God size dreams.

Hello and welcome to another episode. Let me tell you today about a story that involves me, some oil paints and a lifetime of trouble. You see, in my early twenties, I really began to become quite the artist. I loved working with paint. I began going to a school in art, and I was learning all about the proper way to do art. Well, after a while, I decided it was time for me to jump in to oils. At the time, it seemed like a big leap because I'd worked in acrylics up until that point, but when I began to look at oils, I was really impressed by the fact that oils did something very unusual when you work with oils. Some of you may know that it's a paint that doesn't drive very fast. So there was a little bit of give if I made a mistake and oftentimes what I'd find As I was working with oils, I'd be able to push the paint around in a way that really became fun for me because it meant that the moment I put the paint on the canvas, it could be fixed. It could be changed. It could be switched around, wasn't so permanent. You see, oils can take up to three months to dry in some cases and that what's that's what makes him an interesting medium to work with.

On today's podcast, we're gonna talk about art in a way that will reshape how you see the will of God for your life. These are tips You can start right now to move toward those God-sized dreams in bite sized chunks.

Hello and welcome to the podcast God size dreams and bite size chunks. I'm your host, Angela Meer. So let's get ready to be energized, inspired and activated in our God size dreams.

Oil Paints and the Will of God

Hello and welcome to another episode. Let me tell you today about a story that involves me, some oil paints and a lifetime of trouble. You see, in my early twenties, I really began to become quite the artist. I loved working with paint. I began going to a school in art, and I was learning all about the proper way to do art. Well, after a while, I decided it was time for me to jump in to oils. At the time, it seemed like a big leap because I'd worked in acrylics up until that point, but when I began to look at oils, I was really impressed by the fact that oils did something very unusual when you work with oils. Some of you may know that it's a paint that doesn't drive very fast. So there was a little bit of give if I made a mistake and oftentimes what I'd find As I was working with oils, I'd be able to push the paint around in a way that really became fun for me because it meant that the moment I put the paint on the canvas, it could be fixed. It could be changed. It could be switched around, wasn't so permanent. You see, oils can take up to three months to dry in some cases and that what's that's what makes him an interesting medium to work with.

Well, what happened during that time was that I was really struggling with whether or not I was in the will of God, because I had a whole bunch of issues with, you know, was I being spiritually enough? Was a really pursuing the things of God in my life that I needed To and was really struggling with how much I was enjoying becoming an artist and painting well.

One day I was a church and a guy came up to me and he said you know what? I just feel like I need to encourage you.

And he said one line and this one line changed my life. He said to me, You are God's masterpiece.

Now that in and of itself isn't an incredible encouragement. This was an older gentleman in my life who really was kind of like a father figure to me, and it was such a cool encouragement. But something happened in the moment that he said it. There was this download. I call it a heavenly download that happened for me, and all of a sudden I realized that I could be a canvas of oil paints. And that meant that just because I made a mistake with my life didn't mean that God could move the paint around to fix whatever I had done wrong.

Up until that point, I always took every decision in my life super seriously, and I really thought that every decision was something that he would either have to correct or he'd be okay with. And it wasn't until my father figure came and said, You are God's masterpiece, that all that shame and perfectionism came off of me and all of a sudden, I realized,

My God is an oil painter. He's big enough to make a masterpiece out of my life because my paint can be moved around, The stuff of my life can be moved around and made into a beautiful piece of art.

The WORD

So today I want to talk about a few things that will ease your mind when you're deciding God's will for your life. The first thing I think is always important, and that is to stay in the word. Now in the podcast playbook that accompanies this podcast one of our things is that I'm going to take you on a devotional on one of the last episodes. I think you'll really enjoy getting into the word in a different kind of way. So always stay in the word and see if the words speaking to you about God's will.

You also want to make sure to use the word of God as a way to kind of counterpoint any decisions that you might be making that might be be made out of flesh or out of your sin, because the word of God helps bring up a standard in our life. So that we are living up to God's best. God doesn't tell us not to do things because he's a mean father up in heaven, trying to prevent us from going forward and things. He's telling us not to do things because he knows what's best for us. And so consequently, the same thing is true when we read through the word and we're getting instruction from the Lord about how to live our lives in a way that's pleasing to him.

Stay in Prayer

Number two. Even if you're sending up “help me” prayers, stay in prayer. Now what I mean by “Help me” prayers while I often call them popcorn prayers because they pop up real quickly when we're in the middle of a problem or we really need God's help.

But really, every once in a while I need to stop and realize that I need to spend some a serious time in prayer, and maybe that's true of your life to you. And if it's a 15 minutes and where you're just stopping and saying, God, I really just need to invest 15 minutes in praying into this issue and trust that when I pray about it, you're going to deliver on understanding because oftentimes we pray. But we don't pray with faith. We pray and we pray and we pray. We pray, but we don't ask for our faith to meet our prayers. So if that's a problem that you're having, asked the Lord to give you faith that he's gonna answer your prayers.

James Chapter one says that he always answers the prayer, our prayers when we're asking for wisdom so you can trust that he's a good God and he's gonna make sure that that happens.

Podcast Playbook

Are you looking for more information to dream big with God? Perhaps you were interested in starting a business ministry or nonprofit hop on over to my website and get tons of free Resources including the podcast playbook: a workbook designed to accompany each of our podcasts. Find the free resources at angelameer.com. See you there.

Stay Humble

Welcome back. This one's really important to me because it's one of my most favorite ones. It really has been a key for my life, and that is stay humble and stay teachable. See, Oftentimes we think that we know certain things, and sometimes God really wants to kind of shake us up and so be willing to hear from him new things.

Be willing to consider different alternatives, be willing to stay humble and recognize that the Bible says we're the clay and he is the Potter again. This is another art metaphor. He loves to move our clay around in ways that might be kind of out of our box or uncomfortable to us.

So stay humble, cause you never know how he may be revealing his divine will for your life. Let him push your the clay of your life around and move it and mold it into the pot that he wants you to be.

Be Open to the Unusual

Number four. Be open to the unusual. Here's the thing. Often times God is wanting to do something that's way out of our traditional boxes. Boy, I'll tell you what. I have a friend who you know, was, unfortunately, sex trafficked at a young age and because she was sex trafficked at a young age, it really made things incredibly difficult when she came back and she was saved out of that That lifestyle by the FBI. It made it difficult for her to I want to go back and help those girls. But one day, the Lord said to her, You do need to go back and you need to help those girls Well, it's a challenging thing after she had already been in that kind of lifestyle, but she was willing to be open to the unusual. And sure enough, she's become one of the foremost speakers on sex trafficking and informing people about how sex trafficking works and really helping Girls who are coming out of the lifestyle. So she was open to the unusual, and I want you to be open to the unusual too, you never know how God's divine will is going to be speaking to you. Once you have the word of the Lord of in You and your praying, anything could happen.

Move Forward in Action

Number five, Move forward in action. Don't stay stuck. Often times when we're praying for God's divine will. We won't move forward for months or even years because we think that we need to be waiting for him. But oftentimes if we move forward in action will start to see that the download comes. They divine download that we need to be available to him. So move forward in action. And don't be concerned because God will meet you. He will move you around like the clay that you are, or he'll move the oil paint of your life around. Don't stay stuck. You want to keep moving forward.

If you were praying about God's will about something, check out the questionnaire I made for you in the podcast playbook at AngelaMeer.com. The questionnaire will get you thinking out of the box and into some interesting solutions for the decisions that are on your plate until next time. This is Angela Meer helping you achieve God size dreams in bite size chunks.

Angela Meer

E.7: How to Know God’s Divine Will for Your Life